The Pequea Township Police Department will engage in some coffee talk.

The agency will hold its first Coffee With a Cop event on Thursday, July 31, from 9 to 11 a.m. at CPRS Physical Therapy, 3100 Willow Street Pike, Willow Street.

"It's something we always wanted to do," Pequea Township Chief John Michener said. "We always like to do anything we can to outreach to our community and to talk to our community members."

CPRS Physical Therapy provided the opportunity Michener had been seeking. "In this case, the organization where we're holding the event, CPRS, they actually came to us with this idea and offered to host and offered to buy the coffee. So it was a no-brainer to line it up and make it happen."

Jerry Rush, CPRS' executive vice president of operations south, said, "CPRS has been supporting community organizations for our entire 42 years of business. It is important to us to continue to give back to the communities we serve. The vast majority of our staff live, worship, work and play in the communities we serve and are invested in their communities. We hope that hosting this event will allow the communities we serve to grow stronger together."

 Michener, Sgt. Rob Burger, and other Pequea Township officers are slated to attend. "We want to bring as many officers as we can, depending on the schedule," the chief said. "We like to take any opportunity we get to meet members of the community and talk to them. The more faces people get familiar with the better."

He added, "People getting to know our faces and getting to the point where people are more comfortable walking up to us and saying, 'Hey, how are you doing? We met at Coffee With a Cop event.' If they're more comfortable to come talk to us, even in a social setting, then they're going to be more comfortable coming to us when they have a police issue that they need help with, and that's why we're here."

Coffee With a Cop will be a low-key event. "It's going to be a nice, stress-free environment," Michener said. "There is no agenda and no talking points. You can really just come over and have a cup of coffee and have a chat."

What visitors decide to chat about is not crucial. "It doesn't have to be police related," said Michener. "We can talk about anything. Sgt. Burger and I have been here a long time, so we know quite a few people, and there's always something to talk about, whether it's police work or something about the community or the most recent baseball game."

The Pequea Township Police Department participates in community activities throughout the year, including the annual National Night Out event at West Willow Fire Company. Michener said the department meets with church groups and attends get-togethers at Pequea Elementary School like the school's end-of-year celebration for Girls on the Run.

"Anywhere there's a group of people in the community we can talk to and get to know in a positive manner, that's what we're going to do," Michener said.